Tough-Guy Politics on the Vegas Strip

I was in Iowa and I personally found the mass disenfranchisement of the caucus system disturbing. Aside from shift workers, many elderly people were unable to go out in IA's sub zero weather even if a door to door ride was offered. It also disenfranchised military personas serving overseas along with the handicaped and those who were unable to find childcare during that narrow sliver of Time.

I am a member of UNITE HERE and sit on Local 100 NY/NJ's exec board. I work in a restaurant and would be potentially disenfranchised by the caucus. However I support the lawsuit for several reasons. The at large caucus sites are only opne to casino workers not shift workers in hospitials, retail stores or stand alone restaurants not affiliated with casinos. Everyone else in NV has to caucus in the district where they live. Casino workers can choose to caucus where they live or in a special casino worker only "at large" location. Residential districts haver a set number of delegates set in advance based on participation in the 04 general election(like IA) that do not change regarless of whether district urnout is hight or low. However these casino worker only at large sites are the ONLY caucus sites that will get extra delegates if more people turn out.

The caucus system deperaterly needs to be reformed to allow more people to participate. However if we truly are committed to the mnost open and democraticly run races possible, the remedies needs to equally benefit all who are disenfranchised and not a narrow block of workers involved with a single union. If residential caucus sites get a fixed number of delegates based on the 04 general than you are giving these voters less weight behind their vote than cullinary workers who can get extra delegate by voting in casinos even if it's their day off). IMHO all of this nonsense is closer to what happened in Florida in 2000. Military absentee ballots mailed after the deadline were counted while other overseas absentees mailed after the deadline were not. Republican operatives were allowed to (illegally) correct disqualifying errors on Republican absentee ballots but Democrats were not. Re-enfranchinsing a selective slice of the electorate that is all behind a songle candidate or party is the antithisis of Democracy. We need to re-enfranchise but it has to be evenly and across the entire poltical landscape. In all fairness Obama never spoke about the crime of disenfranchising voters when older women who wanted to caucus could not leave their homes during the IA caucus's freezing weather.

I agree that the lawsuit should have been filed long before. I also think thatin a state with an economy largely based on shift workers who have difficulty caucusing, that the NV Demcoratic party wouldn't have proposed holding a stright primary election when lobbying to be added as an extra early state

Obama did not compare himself to either MLK or JFK, he merely cited them as examples. We've all done that; kids do that every day; rappers do it because one historical example is worth a thousand words. If Hillary reasons that to cite a historical figure is to compare yourself to him or her then she is too stupid to be a senator, much less president.

People stop your whining and complaining-It's early yet. If Obama and his cronies think it's hard now.

JUST WAIT!!! THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO CHEW HIM AND SPIT HIM OUT IF HE IS THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE.

The way his campaign whines and twist things that Hillary says or blames her for for having another union's support.

They have not seen anything yet-wait till he is the republican's get thier candidate and start thier attack.

Will he be able to handle it then. I think not by all this blaming everything on the Clinton campaign. When he opened the door for attacks.

And note that who ever posted that Jesse Jackson supported him, well the other day. Jesse Jackson said that he still does not know what Obama is all about.

So people need to look deeper into the message that he tries to drive in.

People wake up!!! Nevada is not going to decide who the next candidate is. There is more primaries to come. This is one nation. Not just Neveda, let us all have a say in it.

It's sounds like the whole Neveda Caucus is a big mess, the last mess we had 8 years ago in Florida did not play out in America's favor.

And yes I agree with the post from Lizzie.

Barack opened the race card himself by comparing himself to MLK.

It turned it all around on Clinton, who has a right to defend what her beliefs are, if anyone has reopened old wounds it was Obama, who doesn't answer to anyone and plays the good old Chicago Dirty politics game.

And it is sad that some black american's are just voting for him because he is black. Now who is racist. What has he done for black america. In his 1.6 million dolar house. When a majority of blacks supported the Clintons in the ninties and now are turning our backs on them, because they are not black.

All democrates are falling right into the republicans and media's hands. Trounce the once favorite candidate and cause a "civil war" amongst democrates.

I forecast that we will be seeing all states going red, if we keep this talk of racism going on.

Barack Obama TOOK A STAND against the IRAQ INVASION when it MATTERED.

Hillary Clinton PLAYED politics when it MATTERED.

Everything else is just BUNK !

The endorsement of the Culinary Union which has 60,000 members was won by Senator Obama. What a lot of the mainstream media is not reporting is the majority of this union is Hispanic -- with birthplaces from Mexico, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. That is good news because THEIR VOICES WILL GET TO BE HEARD, AND THEY BACKED THE CANADIATE THEY FELT BEST REPRESENTED THEM.
The BAD NEWS is that many of the hotels in order to respect this exciting democratic process are going to give these hardworking people the weekend off so they can have a chance to VOTE. LAS VEGAS HAS BEEN A POWERFUL ECONOMIC MACHINE BUT IT WOULD NOT BE A POWERFUL MACHINE WITHOUT THE PEOPLE THAT DO THE JOBS THAT SUPPORT THEM. The SUPPORTERS of THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN HAVE FILED A LAWSUIT TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING. It is a shame with ALL the power the Clintons have that they would try to silence the workers by doing something like filing suit. Those of you who honestly believe she knew NOTHING about this lawsuit, I guess still believe in Santa Claus.

Who's running Hillary's campaign, Elmer Fudd? What happened to the vaulted, meticulous, robotically precise Clinton machine? Dirty tricks, smears, election fraud, injecting racism (even trying to stoke Latino racism), appealing to the baser instincts of the voter, etc. Every day is met with at least one Clinton abomination. Look at today, first she trots out her slimy BET billionaire henchman to knee-cap Obama, then we learn she’s attempting to move the goal post after losing the union endorsement. Has this woman no shame...or scruples?

The Clinton Swiftboat Tactics Escalate to Smear Obama

Clintons' campaign tactics, right out of Carl, Dick and George playbook, have been pretty shocking of late.

We're talking events of a week and Clintons have the audacity to feed recent, uh, days-old, hours-old events to the Revise-History, Scorch-Earth, Didn't-Inhale Machine? And who's coming to dinner? Bob who?

So, last week, during the NH primary campaign when they were feeling pretty desperate with the polls and everything (you with me so far -- this is true, right? Happened? We all on the same page so far?), Bill appears at a campaign event and says Obama's story is a fairy tale. He can't make his wife taller, make her male, make her, well, Obama, Bill whines bitterly. Bill's very angry about this -- can't you see? You're missing something here -- read my lips, he whispers, "she's Female, come on!"

Then, shortly after Bill's remarks, Hillary herself says:

"Dr. King had been on the front lines. He had been leading a movement. But Dr. King understood, which is why he made it very clear, that there has to be a coming to terms of our country politically in order to make the changes that would last for generations beyond the iconic, extraordinary speeches that he gave. That's why he campaigned for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. That's why he was there when those great pieces of legislation were passed. Does he deserve the lion's share of the credit for moving our country and moving our political process? Yes, he does."

After Hillary basically says, "Hey Obama, don't give too much credit to what Dr. Martin Luther King dreamt of -- all this hope stuff is false. Yeah, let's not have "false hopes." I mean, MLB had to get Lyndon B. Johnson to do the real work, remember? Unlike what you think, that white man was really the one who got all the work done for your civil rights movement stuff."

Senator Obama in the meanwhile, stays quiet. All in the meanwhile, with all these headlines going back and forth, regarding what I outlined above, Senator Obama says nada.

The news sort of talk about these remarks by the Clintons. Sort of. There are other headline news. Clinton comes first in NH, and some people think it's because she almost cried, and she makes a speech and says, "Okay, I'll try and cry more often folks, should've listened to you a bit more carefully -- huh. THAT's what you wanted?"

Senator Obama still stays quiet. All in the meanwhile, with all these headlines going back and forth, regarding what I outlined above, Senator Obama says nada.

Then, uh uh, problems for the Clintons. Clyburn, the top ranking black politician, gets angry at the Clintons' remarks (and maybe he also got peeved at other vicious Clinton lies, e.g., Bill claiming he was against the war from the beginning when there's undisputed evidence of speeches he gave supporting Bush on Iraq war?). "You guys being racist here?" Clyburn wonders incredulously.

Senator Obama still stays quiet. All in the meanwhile, with all these headlines going back and forth, regarding what I outlined above, Senator Obama says nada.

So, the Clintons, who desperately need the black vote, then go on radio to Al Sharpton saying, "Hey, Obama is a great guy, he can win, no, no, no, he's no fairy tale."

Obama, in the meanwhile, still keeps quiet.

Hillary now goes on Meet the Press and says, "It's Obama's fault. He's been twisting my words, and oh my god, people, HE IS MAKING RACE AN ISSUE! AND I'M CRYING, SEE MY TEARS???"

So, Obama finally responds, "Uhm. You know, this is kinda fascinating to me. I mean, I didn't say a word? Did anyone hear me say anything about this?"

Nope, Senator. It's just the crazy Clintons again, and some crazy Americans believing the crap, as they do sometimes.

Sigh.

I'm going to guess the judge supports Hillary so the lawsuit will prevail. I'm not sure how this will be possible given that there is already a precedent for skewing the results. The super delegate!! Yes there is such a thing and its another mechanism by elite members of the Democratic Party establishment to keep control over the popular vote! The Democratic Party is not so democratic. Will the real question be what post will the judge get in the Clinton Administration? It makes me sad that our country's politics have sunk to this level. Hillary is really good at this, read up on her earmarks for another example of power before ethics. Is she really the leader we want for our children and our community?

Kate, you wrote: "How can anyone know whom we're voting for??? When I enter a voting booth, there is no one in there with me and there is no one looking over my shoulder!"

What you describe takes place in a primary. But Nevada is holding caucuses. Traditionally, in a caucus the people break up into groups that support a particular candidate. IF there is an insufficient number of supporters for a candidate (the number of individuals for that candidate's group fails to meet the 15% threshold for that particular caucus) then these individuals either go home or choose to support another candidate. This is not a secret vote.

That's bull, Mars. I am a (former) Hillary Clinton supporter, but her tactics have gotten utterly unconscionable. We know what this lawsuit is about, we know Hillary's campaign is clearly involved with it, and how convenient that it came right after the endorsement went to Obama.

This on top of the suppression of Edwards/Obama get out the vote efforts in New Hampshire, plus the lame attempt to suppress college students from voting in Iowa, and it adds up to a pattern of unacceptable behavior for a campaign that is supposed to be conducted with some level of decency.

I liked Hillary for a long time and I thought she was getting a raw deal with some of the attacks recently, but the voter suppression efforts are way beyond the Pale. I can no longer associate myself with the Hillary campaign, and I won't be voting for her in any election that comes later.

Repost

I note that the moderators on this thread have been going through and deleting the pro-hillary posts and leaving the off-topic off color anti-hillary rants (I've been following since last night and several explanatory poss as to what the suit is about are GONE)

For those who don't know this case is ACTUALLY about the fact that these at-large precincts get a rep for every 5 voters while regular precincts get one for every 50. Also only shift workers in the strip get to go to the caucus at the at-large caucus spots (conveniently only at cu controlled casinos). All 9 of at-large districts are in the same county and so are distributed to ignore all the casino workers elsewhere, like say Reno. It's obviously an attempt to rig the system.

The teachers are suing because they're working the caucus because the caucuses are held a schools and someone has to open them. They can vote during the caucus because since its a caucus you have to be physically present the entire time to vote.

To the person pretending to be a lawyer: you're obviously not because despite you claim that anyone can go...it flat out says that you have to present ID proving you're a shift worker

For anyone thinking that the campaigns just sat on this for months, if you look at the articles about the Nevada caucus, as of late November (the first article that appears on Google), nobody new where these at-large precincts were going to be and how they were going to be defined.

For those who want to say that for

ex: The Harry Reid Machine railroaded the idea of a Caucus through the NSDP State Central Committee

and read that as support for Hillary, think again, RORY Reid has come out supporting Hillary. Harry Reid hasn't gone either way. Still keep in mind that Hillary's major supporters have always been the working class (aka exactly who gets DISADVANTAGED by a caucus because you have to sit around for hours instead of voting and leaving).

BARACK OBAMA is a good man, a brilliant man and the great hope for the world.

That woman is poison. If she gets the nod Dems we will be calling another Republican president. I saw her on Meet the Press. She spent the whole hour not answering direct questions and knee-capping Obama. I cannot stand her. She comes off as a compete flake. I know I will not vote if she gets the nod.

I see Hillary playing the race card here, and, increasingly over the past few weeks. Bill talked about the Obama campaign as a 'fairy tale'--in error, I might add. Then, having been called on the lie about Obama, he repeated it. He was called to task by black leaders. Hillary dissed Martin Luther King by saying his dream was worth near zero without the efforts of legendary crook Lyndon Johnson. She was called to task by black leaders. Now her team is orchestrating an effort to disenfranchise minority workers in Nevada--who may have been overly enfranchised by the original Harry Reid plan---but it was passed unanimously, when Hillary thought she would get the nod from the Culinary Workers Union. She seems to be appealing to whites...especially white women....who make up a majority of the U.S. voting population. She seems to be failing, except for older white women, and undereducated white voters of both sexes. It is a cold, calculating, condescending, devisive tactic....just like Hillary herself. I laughed when the media tried to show her 'softer side'. Hillary has no softer side. And now we see that she will use racist politics whenever she doesn't get her way. It would be depressing--but I truly think that more and more people every day are just getting tired of this has-been. Enough is enough, Hillary.

The big turnoff is that the unions expect the American public to believe anyone has a choice in who they vote for in an open caucus at a union workplace. Be real. And Obama is against lobbying? They influence? This is going way back to the notorious Chicago politics. I believe in unions, but who I vote for is my business, not the business of union supervisors where I work. Who would be the precinct captains for Clinton and Edwards? They all work there, they all belong to the union.

So much for "let every vote count" It seems that Libs only want people to have an easy time voting when they think the votes might go for them. It was the same with the 2004 election, every rule was to be bent to get out-of-state, unprepared or felony votes counted .. but military votes that were one hour late were being rejected by dems. Typical left wing hypocracy.

Clinton has alot of experience - of REWRITING HISTORY! No shame from the Clinton's! I do not want dishonest people in the White House, especially our President! All people are included in Obama's Hope and Vision message. Whereas the Clinton's are working the Rove/Washington D.C. PLAYBOOK TO A 'T'. VOTE FOR OBAMA! BY THE WAY, I AM WHITE MALE AM OFFENDED BY THE CLINTON'S TACTICS! LOW, VERY LOW OF THEM...I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR THEM IF THEY MAKE IT TO THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

If I was a voter in Vegas right now, I'd be pretty angry that Hilliary is trying to deny me my vote. I thought that would be against the law.

I guess there are no levels low enough that she will go to!

This is quintessential Clinton: wait to see which side the union endorses, then sue to stop them from voting at work if they don't choose her. Typical slimy, lawyer politics as usual. How could we expect anything different? The Clintons learned from the GOP.